HOW ironic it is that Nassau County’s Roosevelt Union Free School District is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to strangle New York’s fledgling charter-school movement.

Roosevelt runs a shipwreck of a school system. Things were so god-awful bad a couple of years ago that the state Education Department actually put the district into receivership, where it remains (in modified form). Presumably, any plan that promises to teach a few kids to read, write and do numbers properly would be embraced eagerly by Roosevelt.

The district – seemingly because it’s so pathetic – was apparently recruited by the teachers unions and the lobbying group which represents school boards to serve as a lead plaintiff in the suit, which was filed this week.

The action is aimed at lifting charters granted by the State University to three elementary schools that opened in September – the Sisulu Victory Academy and the John A. Reisenbach school, both in Harlem, and the New Covenant Academy in Albany. Also targeted are five others meant to open next fall – including the Harbor Science and Arts Charter School in Harlem.

“It’s not our intent to close down the schools,” says Linda Rosenblatt of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).

Really?

“The court,” urges NYSUT and the other plaintiffs, “should … annul all [charters] issued by … the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York …”

So, obviously, the intent is not just to close the charter schools. It is to roast them and have them for lunch, a modest enough proposal.

And it’s not only the suit.

Robert North runs an alternative elementary school now affiliated with the New York City Board of Education. But, having won the a charter from the SUNY trustees earlier this year, he hopes to break free of 110 Livingston St. next fall.

Tuesday evening, he explained his intentions to parents at JHS 99 in East Harlem: “We’re a public school. We’re tuition free. But we’re going to be held accountable to state standards, and if [we don’t measure up], that’s it. That’s fair enough.”

But from Rudy Crew’s point of view, it’s not about fairness.

The chancellor understands, as do the union and the school boards association, that successful charter schools will drain tax dollars away from their monopoly, and in huge sums. Plus charters stand to be benchmarks against which all public-school performance can be measured.

That’s scary stuff.

So while others sue, Crew tries duplicity, bribery and subversion.

Here’s the duplicity part: The same law that permits Robert North and others to create independent charter schools allows Crew to put together a stable of schools that he calls charters – but which are in no meaningful sense independent.

Crew’s commitment to excellence in this regard can most fairly be gauged by his appointment earlier this month of former Martin Luther King Principal Stephanie D’Amore to a key administrative post in his charter-school directorate.

Under D’Amore, MLK was best known for flagrant attendance fraud, a series of sex scandals, unusually high levels of schoolhouse violence and embarrassingly low test scores. All in all, it’s one of the worst high schools in New York City – which is saying a mouthful. And now D’Amore gets to work her magic on behalf of Crew’s “charter schools.”

(Imagine how grateful she must be, as Gov. Pataki’s Moreland Act investigation into attendance fraud picks up speed.)

Here’s the bribery part: As The Post’s Susan Edelman reported last Sunday, Crew – who has billions at his disposal – offered $100,000 in Board of Ed cash to Harbor Science’s Robert North to bring his entry into the Livingston Street stable.

Not for North personally, of course. That would be wrong.

The money’s intended to fatten Harbor Science’s personnel budget – and the offer is akin to the tens of thousands being offered across the board to potential independent charter start-ups, to draw them into Livingston Street’s orbit.

Here’s the subversion part: Some of Crew’s best buddies – some folks from the notorious Efficacy Institute – are up to their race-baiting eyebrows in an effort to win two charters from SUNY later this year.

Applications from The Banana Kelly Community Learning Charter School, proposed for The Bronx, and the Charles Reason Charter School, for Brooklyn, are being backed by LearnNow, Inc. – which has exceptionally strong ties to Efficacy.

Efficacy contends that black kids don’t learn because white teachers are racist; Crew has caused the institute to be paid millions to bring this obnoxious message to every school system that he has headed – and, through LearnNow/Efficacy, Crew stands to have his nose under the legitimate charter-school tent.